6 ways to celebrate Shakespeare's 450th birthday in England

Stroll through Stratford-upon-Avon – Tea rooms serve cream-loaded scones as big as burgers and ale is pumped in 600-year-old pubs. Anne Hathaway's Cottage (pictured) is a fairy tale-like country house.

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Join the birthday bonanza – The birthday procession in Stratford-Upon-Avon takes place on April 26. Students from King Edward VI Grammar School, where Shakespeare studied as a boy, place quill pens on the writer's grave.

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Walk the City of London – Highlights on the 105-minute London Shakespeare tour include the sites of the only two documented London addresses where the playwright lived. A Shakespeare statue sits near the remains of St. Mary Aldermanbury parish.

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Explore the Globe Theatre – After watching a Shakespeare classic like "A Midsummer Night's Dream," you can tour the Globe Theatre.

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See The Rose – Shakespeare is thought to have learned his trade at The Rose, the first Elizabethan theater on London's Bankside.

Story highlights

The 450th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare is being celebrated in April

Visitors to Shakespeare's birthplace can sign a guest book brought out just once a year since 1847

John Hogg, 69, leads tours of Stratford-upon-Avon every day, rain or shine

Go to the theater?

Visit his hometown?

Drink like an Elizabethan?

What's the most appropriate way to toast the world's best-known writer?

This month marks 450 years since the birth of William Shakespeare.

Bard-o-philes argue over April 23 or April 26 -- the exact birth date is unclear, though historic documents show the date of his baptism as April 26, and newborns were usually baptized within three days of their birth in the 16th century.

Instead of getting into that argument, we prefer to propose six things Bill may have done himself to celebrate the day.

"There are lots of memorials of one kind or another, including sculptures and plaques," says McHugh. "But many aren't well known and are hidden away in odd nooks and crannies."

Highlights on the 105-minute tour include the sites of the only two documented London addresses where the playwright lived and reading Shakespeare's signature on his housing deeds.

To celebrate the writer's birthday, McHugh will lead two special Shakespeare walking tours in South London (starting at 11 a.m., April 22 and 23), as well as two City Walks (starting at 6 p.m., April 22 and 23).

Although the reconstructed Elizabethan theater is no longer standing on its original site (the original Globe, completed in 1599, was about 250 meters to the southeast), it provides a lovely excuse to imagine yourself as an ale-wielding, garlic-chewing, Elizabethan fun seeker.

The theater tour is brilliant.

For a Tudor penny -- or £13.50 ($22.75) in today's money -- you're taken through a brief history of the Globe and Elizabethan theater.

You can watch a show at the Globe's new addition, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

The four-month-old candle-lit playhouse is a reproduction of Blackfriars Theatre, another important Shakespearean theater that once existed north of the Thames.

The oak and thatched-roofed structure will open its doors for free on April 21 from noon to 5 p.m.

It will also stage its newest interpretation of "Hamlet" from April 23-26 before the show embarks on a world tour, visiting every country on the planet in the next two and half years.

Shakespeare is thought to have learned the ropes at The Rose, the first Elizabethan theater on London's Bankside.

Minutes from the Globe Theatre lay the ruins of The Rose, the first Elizabethan playhouse on Bankside, built in 1587.

They're the only surviving parts of an Elizabethan theater open to the public in London.

The foundations of The Rose were discovered in 1989 under a demolished office block.

Philip Henslowe, the playhouse's owner, kept a detailed diary, documenting everything from how plays were performed to how much had been spent on renovations.

Through this diary, "we know more about Elizabethan playgoing from The Rose than from any other source," says Suzanne Marie, an honorary artistic associate with the theater.

The Rose is now used as a fringe theater.

Plays written by Elizabethan masters are staged here almost every night.

The space also hosts an Open Day every Saturday.

Visitors can watch a 15-minute video about the playhouse's history, enjoy a few fringe-style theater scenes and learn about The Rose Revealed Project, a program aimed to convert the site into a permanent public display by 2016.